‘No, we didn’t know each other until then. He’d been camping over the valley there – the place they call Robin Hood’s Stride. There’s a cave there, some kind of hermit’s place or something, where he was sheltering. He didn’t know anything about the Nine Virgins, but he wandered over to see what was happening. That’s how we met up, and that’s why we called him Stride. We just seemed to hit it off. He had nowhere else to go, you see.’

Cooper realized he was being watched. He had forgotten Stride for a moment. He had been so still and quiet he could have been camouflaged by an entire forest of trees instead of sitting there in full view a few inches away. His eyes were open now and he was looking at Cooper.

‘Nowhere else to go,’ he said.

Stride’s paleness was worrying. Cooper wondered what medical attention the two youths had access to. None, he supposed. In an earlier age, Stride would have been described as sickly and consumptive. Cooper would have liked to find out how he came to be camping in a hermit’s cave in the Peak District in the first place. But it seemed too big a question to ask.

‘You went to university, didn’t you?’ he said.

Stride nodded. Cal passed him the tobacco and the Rizlas, and he began to roll a cigarette.

‘What degree did you get?’

Stride smiled. ‘Did I say I got a degree?’

‘It’s usually the reason for going to university.’

‘Only if you finish the course. Otherwise they get a bit stuffy about giving it to you.’

‘I see. You dropped out.’

Now Stride laughed. ‘You might call it that.’

‘So what were you studying?’

Stride stared at him, a sudden gleam in his eye, his hand fluttering to his mouth in that curious gesture. Energy seemed to visibly flow through him. From an almost catatonic state he was transformed into a ball of vitality.

‘You really want to know?’ he said. ‘Come with me.’

‘What?’

He was excited now, tugging at Cooper’s sleeve like a puppy wanting him to come out and play. Cooper looked at Owen, who just smiled and nodded affectionately at Stride.

‘Go on,’ he said. ‘You might learn something.’

They jumped out of the van, and Cooper scrambled up the path after Stride to reach the top of the quarry. The chimes were moving slowly in the birch, jingling gently. One of them turned and caught the sunlight, and Cooper could almost make out the words scrawled on the silver foil in felt-tipped pen.

Stride turned to him at the top of the quarry face and held his hand to his ear, like a bad actor miming his reaction to a knock at the door.

‘Can you hear it? We’re right on the edge.’

‘The edge?’